Runner Uses CPR to Help Save Life of Rival

At the inaugural Embry-Riddle Arizona Cross Country Invitational earlier this month, a female runner from Mesa Community College collapsed on the course. Two athletes from the host school’s team saw her go down and were able to help save her life by performing CPR and alerting medical professionals.

Adrian Castillo, a junior on the cross country team at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s (ERAU's) Prescott, Arizona campus, had injured his knee at Air Force boot camp and was unable to compete at his team’s home invitational, The Daily Courier reports. Instead, Castillo helped direct runners on the course, making sure no one went the wrong direction.

During the women’s race, Castillo was standing talking to team members and his girlfriend when he noticed the runner from Mesa Community College collapse. Not wanting to abandon his duties on the course, he sent his teammates over to help her. However, once they realized it was serious, Castillo handed his course-directing duties over to his girlfriend and went to help the runner, The Daily Courier reports.

At first the runner, whose identity has not been revealed, was conscious and able to talk, but then she stopped breathing. Castillo began to perform CPR and told Trent Marlow, a freshman on the team who had run in the men’s race earlier in the day, to call 9-1-1. Marlow also alerted his coach, Chris Bray.

Meanwhile, Castillo, used the CPR training that he had received as an Eagle Scout and from his involvement in Air Force ROTC, The Daily Courier reports.

“You realize something’s wrong, and then everything kicks into gear. The training I got just went automatically,” Castillo told The Daily Courier.

Castillo performed CPR until members of ERAU’s athletic training staff and paramedics arrived. The collapsed runner was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was treated and released. The team’s coach, Chris Bray, later learned that she suffers from atrial fibrillation, but that she is doing much better in recent weeks, The Daily Courier reports.

Castillo told The Daily Courier that the episode was a good reminder of the value of CPR training.

Castillo and Marlow were recently honored by ERAU and presented with Service Excellence Awards for their role in saving the Mesa Community College runner.

“The university is extremely proud of them,” wrote Jason Kadah of ERAU’s communications and media relations office in an email to Runner’s World Newswire. “Most importantly, we are thankful that the student-athlete from Mesa Community College is okay.”

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